Top Ten Movies of 2006

Yep, a year late. But here it is. Don't hold your breath for 2007. Let's say I'll try not to let a year pass.

Scott

1. Babel – In Morocco, a goatherder buys a gun so his children can defend the goats. A middle-aged couple is sight seeing in Morocco when the wife is shot while riding in the tour bus. In California, their nanny decides to take the couple’s children to Mexico so she can attend her son’s wedding. And a young, deaf girl in Japan searches for intimacy. Four stories loosely connected by circumstance are bound together by theme. We are omniscient viewers, observing the devastation that miscommunication wreaks. It is an emotional journey, but a timely one.

2. Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby – That name, Ricky Bobby, tells you everything you need to know about the movie. On one level, it’s just a funny name, but on another level, it’s funny because it sounds like a racecar driver name. It’s this ability to work on two levels (straight comedy and satire) simultaneously that makes Talladega Nights so brilliant. It adheres to the standard structure of a biopic: the tough childhood, the rise to fame, the fall, and the rise once more. If you see this, great. If not, the movie’s still just funny with great performances by all, particularly Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly. Rare is the movie that knows so well what it is. Rarer still the comedy. This is the most intelligent dumb comedy I’ve seen.

3. Children of Men – In the year 2027, the youngest person on earth is killed at 18. In England, Clive Owen is kidnapped by a former lover (Julianne Moore), a leader of the Human Genome Project. They need his connections in high places to smuggle someone out of the country. Only later does he learn that this someone is a woman and she is pregnant. This leads to a journey through a country devastated by the fact that it knows its time is finite. As much thought went into realizing what this future would look like as went into Talladega Nights’s complete skewering of every nook of the tired biopic. It’s also got two of the most incredible action sequences I have seen in years.

4. Lady in the Water – I know. Reviled doesn’t begin to describe the reaction by critics. But people, I can’t help it. I came at the movie with reservations and I held onto them as long as I could. Hey, I’m only human, I want to look good in front of you. Well, I just couldn’t hold onto them, so here I am telling you that this was one of the best movies of 2006. All it is is a simple, modern-day fairy tale about people learning their purpose for being on this earth. Please, oh please, don’t come at this movie with any cynicism. If you can do that, you may actually find you like it.

5. The Descent – I’m not much of a horror movie fan because they are so often cheaply made, and not cheap with the money (though that is also often the case) but cheap in their purpose. Thrills are the name of the game and as long as you can deliver on that front, well, what else do you really need? I think The Descent ably answers that question. It knows that thrills need to come from somewhere; they can’t simply be manufactured. So a group of women go spelunking. Tight spaces, the fear of getting lost, darkness: caves contain everything we fear and also act as a metaphor for the mind. And don’t think that director Neil Marshall isn’t aware of this. Visual quotes of other movies are parsed throughout enriching the viewing and also letting us know this guy’s done his homework. When my roommate and I saw the movie, a fire alarm went off about an hour into the movie. Our discussion outside on the sidewalk was whether there were any monsters in the movie. The thought that there might be was daunting. The movie had already been scary enough.

6. The Bridge – There was a time when people thought movies could change the world, a time captured in Bertolucci’s The Dreamers. Honestly, it’s rare the movie that even changes my mind. The Bridge, however, did just that. The filmmakers set up cameras on the Golden Gate Bridge where more people commit suicide than anywhere else in the world. For a year they recorded. And they captured some suicides on film. But it is not exploitative at all. If they saw someone who was going to jump, they called. It is the interviews that are what is hard about the movie. The filmmakers found friends and families of the people who committed suicide and in one instance, a person whose suicide attempt failed. Suicide had always been simple for me: bad. Now I feel that for some, it is nearly inevitable. This is not always an easy movie to watch, but it is surprisingly life affirming.

7. Little Miss Sunshine – I’m well aware of the backlash against this movie, and yes, it’s quirky, but it is also smart enough to realize that quirks do not a movie make. The characters begin as sketches but quickly come into focus. And then we get to have some fun. It’s a farce, it’s a road movie, it’s a coming-of-age movie for all involved. But most importantly of all, it is consistently funny from beginning to end. And that is a thing far too rare.

8. Stranger Than Fiction – My friend Tyler said it best: “That movie’s got 8 levels and I love all of them.” It’s true. I sat here for a second, trying to determine how I was going to tackle this movie and decided it a futile effort. There’s too much going on. If you’ve got reservations about Will Ferrell, let ‘em go, people, let ‘em go. So much of Will Ferrell’s comedy comes from him happening to people or circumstances. Here, he is the person to whom things happen. It’s a 180 and he is entirely successful. The performances all around are amazing. I really wanted a supporting nom for Emma Thompson. Ah, well. See it. I bet you can’t pick just one level.

9. The Proposition – The Western has experienced a resurgence recently but don’t come expecting your dad’s westerns. The West here is not only the Australian Outback but is dirty and full of dangerous people with nary a hero to save us. A wanted man’s brother (Guy Pearce), himself wanted, is caught. Here is the titular proposition: Save yourself by giving up your brother. It leads to a long and dark journey under the blazing sun. Perhaps the fascination of the Western is the sense of exposure it gives to things we try and hide: no shade and vast expanses. Whatever the case, the best movie of 2005 was The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, and here is a worthy successor.

10. A Prairie Home Companion – Another movie about death that is about life. The last show of a radio broadcast, an angel of death, and a whole lotta good music. There’s not much of a plot and the movie just kind of happens, but if you can fall into its gentle rhythm, the ride is full of joy. It’s a typical Altman production with a large cast of characters (and characters they are) and a restless camera. The performances are amazing: Lily Tomlin and Meryl Streep; John C. Reilly and Woody Harrelson; Kevin Kline; and in the midst of it all without ever missing a beat, Garrison Keillor.